Dr T's KCS And Tiger Cub

Serious Software for the THINKING Musician

Dr T's Omega II

This is Dr T's (Emile Tobenfeld's) Opus. It is a combination of several midi programs that work together under a multitasking environment called the MPE.(Multi Program Environment)

KCS (Keyboard Controlled Sequencer): the heart of the system. This is where tracks are actually recorded and edited. There are two modes of operation: TRACK mode and OPEN mode. In TRACK mode, the program acts like a 48-track tape recorder with transport controls, track naming, and a host of other features. OPEN mode is a more generalized system that allows independent looping of 128 separate sequences which can allow interactive playback as well. Both modes allow you to go into an extensive editing environment, which the first screen brings up an Event editor. The usual copy/paste/delete functions are there along with several unusual functions.

Then there is an editing module you will not find on ANY sequencer even to the present: The PVG (Programmable Variation Generator.) Using the various tools in the PVG, variations can be created from your "raw" sequences with results that can be quite fascinating. For example; adding flams and fills in a drum track, Creating harmonies on a melody track, adding stick bounce effects on a marimba track. The possibilities are endless.

2.TIGER (The Interactive Graphic EditoR): A piano roll editor for graphically viewing, editing and playing midi sequences. Several graphic editing tools are presented with the ability to alter and edit individual notes that are displayed in the piano roll grid. Controller information can be edited as well. There is also a neat feature that lets you keep all the patch names of your synthesizer in a file, which you can select for each track. You can also audition each track with the sound to see if it will work in the piece. A General Midi format file is included, however you can create your own files specific to your synth.

3. SONG Editor. An interactive screen to arrange sequences created in KCS to create a song. Sequences can be seen and arranged much in the same way as the Cubase arrange screen with some twists. You can create copies of the same sequence, then have each copy in a different key or repeat time multiplied. There is more to this then I know however, which needs more exploration on my part!

QUICK SCORE. A simple score transcription program. Easy to use, and fairly good renderings of your midi data. There are several options for displaying the score such as SPLIT which renders the music on the treble and bass clefs. You can decide how may bars you want in a given line, so you can make things look not so cluttered. You can also print either the track, or the complete piece.

5. MIXER. Now here is a treasure. Complete automated mixes of your tracks. Also a complete system exclusive editor. You can assign any controller to any fader. You can also group faders together so you can for instance fad in tracks 1,2,4,6 while the other tracks remain where they are. You can also sync SMPTE and MTC clocks to automate mixes for films or syncing to a analog/digital recorder.

ADVENTURES IN PVG

The Programmable Variation Generator (PVG) is so unique, that every midi musician should buy an Atari JUST to run THAT! Here are some tricks I learned in using PVG and KCS in general:

Importing Midi files

When the main screen of KCS comes up, select the EDIT button, which brings you into EDIT mode (with the list editor present) From here, go to FILE and select LOAD MID FILE. Select your midi file for importing. The file loads. I have found that if you try to do this in the main KCS screen, it does not always work, but works everytime this way (go figure). Since I sometimes start a composition in Cubase, I save it as a midi file to import it into PVG for processing, so I have included this step of the process.

Once the midi file is in KCS and you see it dislayed in the list editor, select a track you want processed with the PVG (the track numbers are at the bottom of the screen) then select the PVG button. You are presented with the first PVG screen: CHANGE by Constant. Under General Options, I usually put 50 changes per vary and 3 variations. You can choose if you want Evolving Mults or Consecutive Mults. Go to GET in the menu to see what presets you can use. The default with the program contains some interesting variations. I sometimes go to the ORNAMENTS screen and GET the Stick Bounce preset. Then select OK. You are returned to the KCS edit list screen. Hit F1 and you are returned to the PLAY screen. Then you can play what was created in PVG, by unmuting the VRY parts, and playing the piece. Sometimes I will create variations of several tracks. Then go into TIGER. Change the midi channels that the variations are on, and assign new sounds to them. Then I can go into the MIXER section and pan each voice differently in the stereo field to create some neat effects. You can also start from scratch in the PVG by putting your own values in the fields for Pitch, Velocity, Duration, Shift, and interval. Just be sure to put in WGTs for these fields also. Then you can store your own presets in your own file by using the SAVE command from the menu. Then there is the MACRO screen where you can execute many variations at once in a logical fashion. There is so much to the PVG, that you can never fully exploit it. It will keep
you going

I have not really worked in open mode that much, and wanted to try it. So I recorded a lot of small 2 bar sequences using Music Mouse on one of my other ST's going into my falcon running KCS.. Then I would take go into EDIT, select the first track,then select TIGER from the MPE menu, then change midi channels and select a patch from the program list (GM list of instruments....this is NOT available in the KCS ver 4 version of Tiger but only in ver 5. However Tiger Cub has this))and then from the menu select TRACK TO SEQUENCE command. This converted the track to a sequence that can be viewed in OPEN MODE. Once I had a lot of sequences put together including some drum tracks (patterens)I played them from the OPEN PLAY mode.Then recorded my results right into Cubase on my TT030 and converted it to midi file.

It was such a joy to be able to pick , start, and stop sequences right from the Computer keyboard all at your command. I do not know of ANY sequencer on any platform that does this. What a lot of fun as well as intuitive and interactive. There are probably more tricks to this as well.

To check this file out on the KCS ver 4 (shareware) edition, just load the program. Then from FILE, select OPEN and bring in the MMOUSE.ALL file. The file loads into the TRACK MODE. What you see are 40+ tracks all filled up. These are the indevidual patterns on each track. Don't play it from here as it will be a mess.(However you could by using the solo command) However select EDIT at the bottom of the screen, and the Edit menu and event screen is presented. Then select OPEN MODE. Then the dialog changes. Then Select OPEN PLAY, and then the Open Play screen comes up. Hit 0 on the 10 keypad part of the computer keybrd TWICE (00) and you will hear a drum patern sound. Then start selecting patterens on the qwerty keyboard. You can start a sequence by hitting it once,. then to stop it, hit the same key and it finishes to the end of the bar and stops. (Neat heh?)Start another sequence. All the sequences are in the same key. Each is mapped to a different midi channel and GM sound. A lot of FUN HEH???!!

Try creating your own from scratch...this is a different way to compose then just linearly as in a track style sequencer.

NEW!! KCS Omega Ver 4.0 NOW AVAILABLE !

This version originally appeared as an ST Format Cover Disc.

NEW: 2-20-03 Dr T has now approved of KCS ver 4 with Song Edit, PVG and the Master Editor.( for this you click on level2.prg within the archive.) The KCS ver 4 has been repackaged with several example PVG files. Included is also Tempo Master MPE ( now freeware) by Jeffery Raid Baker. The PVG docs are also available. See download section.

New: also included with registration is the KCS ver 5 manual in softcopy form ( Microsoft WORD)Please note that the manual is for version 5 and will have the additional features of version 5 covered. It can still be used for version 4 with good results.

Send US funds to:

Alpha Channel Productions
15 Frances Road
Lexington MA 02421

Once you have sent the funds, contact emile@foryourhead.com for the manual. Once he has recieved the funds, he will email the DOC file to you.

To upgrade to version 5.0 which includes many more MPE
modules, please contact Emile Tobenfeld.Please read the DOCS supplied for more
details on version 5.0 . SUPPORT ATARI PROGRAMMERS!! See below.

DR T (Emile Tobenfeld) has given me permission to have a simple version of OMEGA II here as a download called TIGERCUB. It is NOT the demo version that is readily available on Atari FTP sites, as this is the full version of the program.( version 2.0 as of 3/18/92) Thankyou Doctor!

TIGERCUB is a 24 track sequencer with the Tiger editor and Quickscore MPE module. There are good docs within the ZIP soyou can readily work with it. You can load KCS ALL files as well as Standard Midi files. You can also use the INTERNAL sounds of the Atari as well for somecool techno-mod type effects. The screen colors are also configurable. I like TIGERCUB myself because of it's simplicity. The layout is very easy to work with. The only thing it does NOT have are the PVG, List editor , song mode, and other editing tools that it's Big Daddy has, namely Omega II. For those features, you need to contact the good Doctor and get the whole package (which is well worth it!)

The DECITALA Rhythms. By Chas Stoddard.

For use with OMEGA II. 126 different rhythms in KCS and Midi Fileformat.

Chas has given me permission to have his amazing KCS files as a download for use with Omega II KCS. The rhythms are also available in Standard midi fileformat so you can use any sequencer to load them, including TIGER CUB.Howeverthe full use of these files can only be experienced in KCS.Once you load theALL file,and go into OPEN PLAY mode, you are presented with the 120 principlemotifs (or patterns) used in traditional Indian Music. All you need do is press the corresponding QWERTY keys and you can play them. You can play several at a time for some interesting polyrhythms. The real beauty is bringing them into SONG EDIT and linking them to form complete songs as well as overlapping them for polyrhythmic expression and transposing them to obtain different voices.You do not need to use percussion sounds as these work very well with"tuned" percussive sounds such as Marimba, or Vibraphone.Chas has complete instructions on how to use the files and is very informative. Of course you do not have to create "indian" music with these files, but can be a basis for some energetic and complex rhythms that can be used in any style of music.ENJOY! See Download link below as well as the link to Chas Stoddards web site with more KCS goodies. I am also pleased to announce that Chas has made available his Microtonal PVG files on his site as well. Those with Omega II Ver 5 can make good use of these files in the area of microtonal music. Chas also has a very good section on explaining the PVG as well as KCS in general.

KCS History by Trond Einar Garmo

Many seem to be confused about KCS versus Omega, KCS versus Level II
etc. So here is some history of KCS, as I remember it

First there was KCS for Commodore 64. This (I think) only had open
mode. The program was then ported to the Atari, and track mode and
song mode was introduced in addition to open mode. The song mode was a
simplified version of open mode (segment A followed by segment B
followed by segment C, etc.) The first versions had no gem menus, and
was command driven. I jumped on at version 1.5. Then came version 1.6
and 1.7, where the MPE and Gem menus was introduced. At the same time
a version called Level II was introduced. This had the PVG
(Programmable Variations Generator) and the Master Editor. KCS and
Level II was sold as separate programmes. After version 1.7 the
version numbers jumped to 3.0. The MPE concept was developed more, and
among the important modules came Tiger (The Interactive Graphic
EditoR), first as a separate program, and Quickscore.

When version 4.0 came, the program came as a package and was renamed
Omega (or KCS Omega). This package included Tiger , Graphic Song
Editor and Quickscore, along with some smaller modules (AnyMPE.prg
etc.) The Song Mode was skipped when the Graphic Song Editor was
introduced. The Omega package had both KCS versions.

The last official release was Omega II, which also introduced the
Mixer MPE program, new Open Mode event types, plus Tiger 2.0. Tiger
2.0 has many new functions. Some maybe came from PVG, but function in
realtime, and some functions seem to be inspired by (former
Intelligent Musics) Realtime's "fill" feature. The very last version
is 5.11. This version is still sold by Emile Tobenfeld. The main new
features here are still more Open Mode event types for interactive
playback. It also includes an unfinished, but workable version of Song
Editor. It looks ugly, but has some features for interactive playback
that can be useful (MIDI controllers can control time and velocity
transposition or time shifts of individual lines.) Also a new MPE
module that can import individual tracks or sequences from other
files. Very useful.

Atari-Midi AOTM folder. Includes KCS16txt.zip. The manual for ver 1.6 of KCS, but can be used for many functions of ver 4 such as track mode and open mode.There are also three folders for KCS ALL files, Midi files and VRY files.